Between morality and evidence : Social work with homeless people in Sweden

Homelessness is a growing global problem. Homelessness produces and reinforces social exclusion. The main reason for homelessness is that there is a shortage of housing available to people with low incomes. Counteracting homelessness requires housing policy initiatives that make it possible for people with low incomes to have access to housing. At the same time people who are homeless must receive help and social support. The Housing First model for housing has received much attention in discussions about how to combat homelessness because it is a successful method. Housing First differs significantly from traditional social work with homeless people, which often is based on the Housing staircase model which lacks evidence. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of homelessness and social work with homeless people in Sweden, and to describe and discuss the implementation of Housing First in Sweden which has been more problematic than in many other countries. The discussion about the implementation of Housing First is based on theory on path dependence and social constructivist theory